ILDING OF A DIOCESE. 



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r^r iJk' :'f,iintlin{f of th^ 



DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA 



(Day 2^tk. I? 



Rr. Rev. \Vm. Bacon Stevens, D.D., LL.D. 



Bishop of flie Diocese of Pennsylvania, 



HRIST CHURCH, 



Pf/ILADELPHJA. 



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Ei)t Builtring of a liiocese. 



A DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED AT THE 



Centennial Celebration 



OF THE FOUNDING OF THE 



Diocese of Pennsylvania, 

MAY 24, 1884, 



IN 



CHRIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA 



BY THE 



Rt. Rev. WM. BACON STEVENS, D.D., LL.D., 
Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvaiiia. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH CONVENTION 

OF THE DIOCESE. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

McCALLA & STAVELY, PRINTERS, 

237-9 Dock Street. 

1884. 






Owing to the length of the Discourse, portions of it were omitted in its delivery ; 
they are now printed as originally written. 



liO ^ Z^^_ 



Tbe BuMiM of a Diocese. 



Nehemiah ii. 18-20.— And they said, Let iis rise up and build. So tliey 
strengthened their hands for tliis good work. 

The God of Heaven, He will prosper us ; therefore, we His servants, will 
arise and build. 

We can imagine such words as these, spoken by 
those, who, a hundred years ago to-day, met in this 
City to build up the waste places of their Spiritual 
Zion. 

Like that Patriot-Prophet, Nehemiah, they had 
taken a survey of the desolation of the House of God 
after the War of the Revolution; and knowing by 
actual observation what ought to be done, they set 
themselves to do it, saying one to another, "Let us 
arise and build;" and they comforted each other with 
the assurance, "The God of Heaven, He will prosper 
us." 

To show how they builded, and with what results, is 

the object of this discourse. The organization of this 

Diocese is but one of a series of acts, which marked 

the reconstructive effort to build up our branch of the 

Church in the last century. We select this period, 

however, because it is the culminating point to which 

many preceding events converged, and from which 

3 



4: THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

many mighty and moulding influences have gone 
forth. To us it is our Diocesan Birthday; and on 
this, its One Hundredth Anniversary, it becomes us 
to recount the past with joy, and to forecast the future 
with hope. 

I shall restrict myself to two lines of thought. 

1st. What was early done in the incej)tion and 
formation of this Diocese. 

2d. The wonderful influence and development of 
certain great principles then incorporated into our 
organic life. 

Many most interesting lateral lines branch off from 
these two points, tempting us here and there to dwell 
on them; but which, if followed out, would rather 
confuse our minds, and prevent us from having that 
singleness of eye with which I wish you to look at 
the transactions of this day a century ago, and the 
blessings which have been secured to us thereby. 

I. We are first to consider what was really done in 
the inception and formation of this Diocese. The first 
step in the State of Pennsylvania looking to the 
organization of our Church was taken in November, 
1783, at a meeting of the vestries of the Churches of 
Christ Church and St. Peter, by the appointment of 
a committee " from these vestries to confer with the 
Clergy on the subject of forming a representative body 
of the Episcopal Churches in Pennsylvania." 

Accordingly three Clergymen, viz. : Rev. Dr. White, 
Eev. Dr. Magaw, and the Eev. Mr. Blackwell, and 



THE BUILDIXG OF A DIOCESE. 5 

four Laymen, viz.: Wm. Pollard, John Chaloner, 
Lambert Wilmer, and Plunkett Fleeson, met at the 
house of the Rev. Dr. White,"^ on the 29th of March, 
1784, and organized by appointing Rev. Wm. White 
Chairman. 

At this meeting it was resolved to issue the follow- 
ing circular to the wardens and vestrymen of the 
different Episcopal Congregations in the State : 
"" Gentlemen : 

" The Episcopal Clergy in this City, together with 
a Committee appointed by the Vestry of Christ 
Church and St. Peter's, and another Committee ap- 
pointed by the Vestry of St. Paul's Church in the 
same City, for the purpose of proposing a plan of 
ecclesiastical government, being now assembled, are 
of opinion that a subject of such importance ought to 
be taken up, if possible, with the general concurrence 
of the Episcopalians in the United States. 

" They have, therefore, resolved, as preparatory to a 

general consultation, to request the Church Wardens 

and Vestrymen of each Episcopal Congregation in 

the State to delegate one or more of their body to 

assist at a meeting to be held in this City on Monday, 

the 24th of May next, and such Clergymen as have 

parochial cure in the said Congregation, to attend 

the meetings, which they hope will contain a full 

representaion of the Episcopal Church in this State. 

The above resolve, gentlemen, the first step in their 

proceedings, they now respectfully and affectionately 

communicate to you* 

"Wm. White, Chairman.^^ 

* This house, corner Front and Pine, is now part of St. Peter's House. 



6 THE BUILDIl^G OF A DIOCESE. 

The meeting thus summoned met in {this) Christ 
Church on the 24th of May, 1784, one hundred years 
ago this morning. It was composed of the following 
persons : 

J^rom Christ Church and St. Peter'^s, Rev. Wm. 
White, D.D., Eev. Eobert Blackwell, Matthew Clark- 
son, Wm. Pollard, Dr. Gerardus Clarkson, and John 
Chaloner. 

From St. PauVs Churchy Rev. Samuel Magaw, 
D.D., Lambert Wilmer, and Plunkett Fleeson. 

From St. Jameses, Bristol, Mr. Christopher Merrick. 

From Trinity Church, Oxford, Mr. Benjamin Cott- 
man. 

From All Samts\ Penny pack, Mr. Benjamin John- 
son. 

From St. PauVs, Chester, Dr. William Currie and 
James Witby. 

From St. DavicVs, Radnor, Richard Willing. 

From St. Peter^s, Great Valley, John Francis. 

From St Martinis, Marcus Hook, Joseph Marshall. 

This Assembly represented ten Churches, and was 
composed of three Clergymen and fourteen Laymen. 

As more persons were expected, it was resolved, 
after a brief conference, to adjourn till the next 
morning, when there appeared: 

From St. Jameses Church, Lancaster, the Rev. 
Joseph Hutchins and Mr. W. Parr. 

From St. Jameses, Perkiomen, Dr. Robeit Shannon 
and John Bean. 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 7 

From St John^s^ ]N'ew London, Mr. John Wade. 

From Huntington, York County, Mr. Joseph Folk. 

Later that day the Hon. James Read appeared as 
a deputy from the Church in Reading, and Mr. 
George Douglass from St. Gabriel's, Morlattin. So 
that the gathering was made up of four Clergy- 
men and twenty -one Laymen, representing sixteen 
Churches. 

Each of the Churches thus represented is in exist- 
ence now, though the titles of one or two have been 
slightly changed, but the corporations continue, 
which is quite a remarkable fact, considering the 
fluctuations of population, and the many other 
changes which have taken place since. 

At this meeting a committee, consisting of the 
Clergy and Dr. Clarkson, Mr. Parr, Mr. Willing, Mr. 
Fleeson and Dr. Shannon, was appointed to consider 
the matter of securing the concurrence of their 
brethren in the other States, in adopting some general 
means for the preservation of their communion ; and 
they reported a set of Instructions or Fundamental 
Principles. 

This plan was carefully considered, paragraph by 
paragraph, and then adopted as the basis of future 
action. 

The committee recommended the appointing of a 
Standing Committee in this State, consisting of 
Clergy and Laity, with power to confer and corre- 
spond with representatives of the Episcopal Church 



8 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

in other States, and assist in framing an ecclesiastical 
government. To guide this committee in their line 
of action, six principles were laid down with great 
emphasis : 

1st. Declaring our independence of all foreign 
authority, ecclesiastical or civil. 

2d. Declaring the self-governing power of the 
Church, to regulate the concerns of its own com- 
munion. 

3d. The adoption, as far as may be, of the faith and 
liturgy of the Church of England. 

4th. The holding on to the Apostolical Succession 
of the ministry. 

5th. That the only authority to make Canon laws 
is the action of the Clergy and Laity conjointly. 

6th. That no powers be delegated to a general 
ecclesiastical government, except such as cannot be 
conveniently exercised by the Clergy and Laity in 
their respective congregations. 

This Standing Committee met again in September, 
and then appointed such of its members as might be 
present, as deputies to a meeting of the Clergy and 
Laity from other States to be held in JSTew York on 
the 5th of October, and Rev. Drs. White and Magaw, 
Messrs. Matthew Clarkson, Richard Willing, Samuel 
Powell and Richard Peters were present at this first 
general meeting of Clergymen and Lay Deputies of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States of America, convened in New York October 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 9 

6 and 7, 1784. Eight States were represented there 
in that Conference (for such only it was) and recom- 
mended that immediate action should be taken by 
the several States, for organizing the Church within 
the borders of each, as well as for effecting a general 
union for the whole country. 

Their proceedings were digested into seven funda- 
mental principles, the first of which was, there shall 
be a General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 
the United States of America ; and the last of which 
was, the appointment of the first meeting of this 
General Convention to be held in May, 1785, in 
Philadelphia. Here, in Christ Church, on Monday, 
May 23d, at eleven o'clock, this first representative 
body of our Church in the Union did meet and 
organize, and laid the ecclesiastical and canonical 
basis of our Protestant Episcopal Church. Thus the 
work of consolidation and organization was fairly 
begun on well-defined and wise foundations. These 
foundations were so truly and strongly laid, that not 
one of them has been displaced, or essentially 
changed ; but they remain where the wise master- 
builders put them a century ago, and uphold the 
whole superstructure of an ecclesiastical organization 
that covers the land with its Dioceses and Mission- 
ary jurisdictions. 

Returi^ing now to our own Diocese, and confining 
our attention for the present to its progress, we find 
that this first Conference in 1784 prepared the way 



10 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCfc^SE. 

for the first regular Diocesan Convention, which met 
in Christ Church in this City in May, 1785. 

This Convention was composed of six Clergymen 
and eleven Laymen, representing twelve Churches. 

Of this body, Dr. White was unanimously chosen 
President, and Mr. Samuel Powell Secretary. The 
deliberations of this Convention resulted in "An Act 
of Association of the Clergy and Congregations of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Penn- 
sylvania, prepared by a committee acting under 
certain preliminary instructions laid down by the 
Convention." 

This "Act of Association" is familiar to many of 
you, as it has been reprinted again and again in the 
various editions of our Diocesan Constitutions and 
Canons, and I need not recite it here. 

This document is the " Magna Charta " of our 
Church in this State of Pennsylvania. Upon it has 
been based all our legislation, into it have been 
mortised all our Canons, and under its broad pro- 
visions, we have had a century of healthful life and 
growth. 

An important " Supplement " to this Act of Asso- 
ciation was passed in the Convention of 1786, 
declaring that further alterations in the Book of 
Common Prayer, other than such as became neces- 
sary in consequence of the Revolution, " may be 
made by the Convention, provided, only, that the 
'main body and essentials' be preserved, and altera- 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 11 

tions made in such forms as the Church of Ensrland 
hath herself acknowledged to be indifferent and 
alterable." 

Thus that most delicate and all-important question 
came up as to the formation of a Prayer Book for 
our newly constituted Church. This question takes 
in the history of what is called " The Proposed 
Book," the interesting correspondence which en- 
sued between our Church and the Archbishop and 
Bishop of the Church of England, touching the 
changes therein made, and the whole subsequent 
action of the General Convention before our present 
Prayer Book was finally adopted and declared to 
be in 1789 "the liturgy of this Church," and that 
it be received as such, by all the members of the 
same." 

Though full of incidents, rich in historic value, yet 
this subject can only be aUuded to here, as its dis- 
cussion belongs rather to another period and to 
another legislative body, than to the occasion which 
we now commemorate. Yet the initial motive-force 
which suggested, and wrought out the revision of the 
English Prayer Book, so as to adapt it to the needs 
and conditions of our newly organized American 
Dioceses, originated in the minds and discussions 
ot the members of the Pennsylvania Convention. 

The next Convention of the Diocese met in 
May, 1786. After agreeing to a set of Rules of 
Order, adopting the Supplement to the Constitution 



12 thp: building of a diocese. 

already spoken of, and discussing the report of the 
Committee on the Prayer Book and the amendments 
which they propose, the Convention adjourned to the 
third day of October to complete its business. 
"Certain circumstances and events rendering it 
necessary," that an early meeting should be held (one 
of the reasons being the importance of electing a 
Bishop before the assembling of the General Con- 
vention on the loth of October, only seven days 
beyond the day to w^hich the Diocesan Convention 
had adjourned), that body was called together for 
the 14th of September. Four Clergymen and thir- 
teen Laymen, representing ten Churches, assembled 
at that time ; " the Convention accordingly proceeded 
to the election of a Bishop by ballot, and the Rev. 
William White, D.D., was unanimously chosen." 

Such is the brief official record of this most impor- 
tant act. What vast issues for good to this Church 
and to this land, have resulted from the solemn ballot 
of that hour ! We cannot but feel that the Holy 
Ghost presided over their deliberations, and guided 
the members of that Convention to choose a man to 
be their Bishop, not only " godly and w^ll learned," 
but conspicuous above his brethren for his calm judg- 
ment, his wise counsel, his prudent action, his far- 
seeing views, and his gentle manners. 

At the next Convention of this Diocese, in May, 
1787, Dr. White, now consecrated a Bishop, took his 
place as President. He laid before that body the 



THE BUILDING OF A I>IOCP:SE. 13 

certificate and testimonials of his consecration in the 
Chapel of the Palace of Lambeth in England, on the 
fourth day of February, 1787, by the Most Reverend 
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Arch- 
bishop of York, the Right Reverend Bishop of Bath 
and Wells, and the Right Reverend Bishop of Peter- 
boro'. These, with other notarial papers attested in 
Doctors' Commons, wei'e laid before the Convention, 
which unanimously approved all that Bishop White 
had done.* 

At the Convention, held in June, 1789, the 
Bishop and his Council, were requested to " revise the 
Canons of the Church of England, and to prepare a 
set for the government of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church in this State." The first report of this com- 
mittee appears to have been made in the Eleventh 
Convention, held in June, 1795, when seven Canons 
were presented and adopted, and the foundation of 
our present Diocesan code was laid. 

*It was at this Convention, also, that, so far as I have been able to discover, 
the first step was taken towards the forming of a Standing Committee of 
the Diocese. On motion it was resolved that " A Council of Advice and 
Correspondence be appointed with whom the Bishop may consult in the 
discharge of his office, and that the said Council consist of three Clerical 
and three Lay members, to be chosen annually by ballot, by the Conven- 
tion." The Rev. Dr. Magaw, Rev. Mr. Blackwell, Rev. Mr. Pilmore, 
Hon. Francis Hopkinson, Mr. Samuel Powell, and Mr. Andrew Doz, 
were elected as the first Standing Committee. The organization of this 
Standing Committee was by a subsequent Convention made more clear as 
to its specific duties, and the number composing it was made five of 
each Order instead of three. 



14 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

This Eleventh Convention was signalized by the 
interesting fact, that for the first time in the history of 
the American Church, steps were taken towards the or- 
dination of a colored man. Absalom Jones, described 
in the Journal as " a black man, belonging to the Afri- 
can Church of St. Thomas in this City, had requested 
that the knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages 
be dispensed with in his examination for Holy Orders, 
and the same was granted under the condition that it 
be not understood to entitle the African Church to 
send a Clergyman or Deputies to the Convention, or 
interfere with the general government of the Episcopal 
Church ; this condition being made in consideration 
of their peculiar circumstances at present." Absalom 
Jones was ordained this year by Bishop White, and 
he continued to serve faithfully in the ministry until 
his death, in 1818. In speaking of his death, in his 
address, the Bishop says : " I do not record the event 
without a tender recollection of his eminent virtues 
and of his pastoral fidelity." 

In the Thirteenth Convention, in 1797, the first 
regulations were adopted requiring Annual Parochial 
Reports and Annual Convention Sermons. It was 
not, however, until the Twenty-fifth Convention, held 
in 1809, that the Bishop began, what has ever since 
been the custom, of giving an Episcopal address 
to the Convention reviewing his year's work, and 
giving the general statistics of the Diocese. In 
Bishop White's first address, he reports for the year 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 15 

ending May, 1809, forty-one persons confirmed, and 
one person ordained Deacon, and one advanced to the 
Priesthood. 

In the Twenty-eighth Convention, in May, 1812, 
we have the first idea of any division of this Diocese, 
and the first step looking to such a result. The sub- 
ject of providing Episcopal supervision for Churches 
westward of the AUeghenies had been discussed in 
the General Convention of 1811, and referred for more 
definite action to the Bishops of Penns3^1vania and 
Virginia. Bishop Madison, however, had died, but 
Bishop White brought the matter before the Penn- 
sylvania Convention, which resolved that '4f a Bishop 
should be consecrated for any State to the westward, 
and it should be thought expedient that the Churches 
of this State, westward of the Allegheny mountains, 
should be under the superintendence of the Bishop so 
contemplated, this Convention consent to the same 
on such terms as may be approved by the Bishop and 
the Council of Advice of this Church." 

This year is marked in our Diocesan History as the 
birth year of the " Society of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church for the Advancement of Christianity in Penn- 
sylvania." Its formation was brought to the notice 
of the Convention, and the unqualified approbation of 
that body was given to so laudable an Institution. 
As is well known, this Society has been for seventy 
years an important agent in sustaining and building 
Churches within this Diocese, and in the education 



16 THE BUILDIIS^G OF A DIOCESE. 

and support of the Clergy ; and though some of its 
functions have been superceded by the later Board of 
Missions in the present Diocese of Pennsylvania, yet 
its missionary and pastoral-aid work is, as far as its 
means allow, actively carried on in the other two 
Dioceses within this State. 

In his address to the Convention, held in 1814, 
Bishop White says : "Thirty years are now passed 
since the organization of our Communion, in this 
State and throughout the Union, was begun in this 
City. It has been my lot to take my share in 
all the counsels as well of the General Convention as 
of those which have been held for this Diocese in 
particular. So long as health and strength and men- 
tal ability may permit, I shall esteem no labor too 
great for the perpetuating and improving of what 
I have seen auspiciously begun, and prosperously 
conducted." These modest remarks bring before us 
the fact, that no man then living had taken a deeper 
interest in resuscitating the Church, in reorganizing 
it, in refurnishing it with all needed agencies for self- 
perpetuation, and in devising ways and means for its 
sustenance, unity and progress, than he, who made them. 

In October, 1824. Bishop "White met with the first 
and only accident in the discharge of his Episcopal 
duties. He had long had it on his mind to visit the 
regions beyond the Alleghenies, and, in company with 
the Rev. Jackson Kemper, he started on that long and 
todious journey. After performing various Episcopal 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 17 

duties at Lancaster and Hanisburg, and Mifliintown 
and Lewistown, he set off, on the morning of the 25th 
of October, for Huntingdon ; but a short distance be- 
yond Lewistown he was thrown from his carriage, 
fracturing his right wrist, and lacerating his face. 
''Owing," he writes, "to the vahiable medical assist- 
ance gratuitously rendered me, to the sympathy and 
good offices of many estimable inhabitants of the 
town, to the important attentions of my fellow-trav- 
eler (Mr. Kemper), and to the hastening to me of 
two members of my own family, I was enabled, under 
the good providence of God, to reach my home on the 
15th day from the fall." 

Undeterred by this mishap, the venerable Bishop, 
then seventy-seven years old, set off on the 30th May, 
1825, to complete the journey which was so suddenly 
ended by the accident the year before. On this trip, as 
on the former, he was accompanied by the Kev. Jack- 
son Kemper, then Assistant Minister of the United 
Churches in Philadelphia. It was here, and under 
the personal supervision and companionship of the 
venerable Presiding Bishop, that Bishop Kemper 
learned his first lesson in missionary work and travel, 
and became initiated into that line of action, which 
he so well afterwards carried out, and w^here ten Dio- 
ceses now rise up and bless him for his Missionary 
Episcopate, as the first "Bishop of the IS'orthwest 
Territory." 

On this second visit of Bishop White, he went, via 



18 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE^ 

Huntingdon and Holidaysburg, to Pittsburgh, reach- 
ing there on the evening of Thursday, the 9th of 
June. On Sunday, 12th June, he consecrated the 
new Church in that city, preached, confirmed 135 
persons, and administered the Holy Communion. Of 
this Church, Bishop White says he considered it "a 
work of correct taste and an ornament to the State." 
Well might he say this, for it was designed by its then 
Rector, Rev. John Henry Hopkins, a man of multi- 
farious gifts and accomplishments, afterwards the 
Presiding Bishop of our Church. It was the first 
attempt in that region to introduce the Gothic style 
of architecture, and to make art, and taste, and history, 
blend in a structure which should mark it out among 
all other structures as the House of God. Very inter- 
esting were the associations of that old Church (now 
supplanted by a nobler one), with Bishop Hopkins. 
Though not the founder of the Parish, he was its 
reviver, its architect, its decorator, its musical director, 
its vigilant pastor and eloquent preacher ; and his 
name will ever be held in respectful remembrance by 
the new Diocese of Pittsburgh : — and his was the 
privilege, as the Presiding Bishop of the House of 
Bishops, to consecrate Dr. Kerfoot, the first Bishop 
of the new Diocese of Pittsbui-gh. 

Leaving Pittsburgh, the Bishop and Mr. Kemper 
went on to Wheeling, in Virginia, to consecrate, at 
the request of the Bishop of Virginia, St. Matthew's 
Church in that town. 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 19 

On his homeward journey he visited Brownsville 
and consecrated Christ Church, then Connellsville, 
then Greensburg, where he consecrated the Church, 
then to Bedford and Stoyestown, to Carhsle, to Christ 
Church, Huntington, to York, then called Yorktown, 
to Marietta, Pequea, Lancaster, Churchtown and Mor- 
gan town, making in all a journey of 830 miles, occu- 
pying thirty-five days. Considering the age of the 
Bishop, the imperfect mode of traveling, the indifferent 
accommodations provided, and the absence of many 
of his usual and much-needed comforts, this was a 
remarkable Episcopal Visitation, and evinced the 
energy and fidelity to duty which marked the Bishop 
long after he had reached the age of threescore years 
and ten. 

The period had now come when the Bishop and the 
Clergy felt that it was important to elect an Assistant 
Bishop. After consultation with the Standing Commit- 
tee, he called a Special Convention for that purpose, 
which met in St. Peter's Church in this city, in October, 
1826. In his address to this special Convention he 
dwelt with force upon three essential points which 
should meet in the person who should be chosen to 
that high office. The first was Piety ^ " Manifested 
by a long perseverance in the profession of the Chris- 
tian religion and by a consistent life and conversa- 
tion." Second, " Being furnished with such an 
amount of theological literature as may be shown to 
be called for by the station of a Bishop." Third, 



20 THE BtTTLDING OF A DIOCESE. 

"Attachment and conformity to the institutions of 
our Church, in doctrine, in worship, in Ecclesiastical 
Constitution and government." On the first ballot 
the tellers reported that the Rev. William Meade, of 
Virginia, had received twenty-seven votes and Rev. 
Bird Wilson, of Pennsylvania, twenty-six votes, and 
Bishop White announced to the Convention the nom- 
ination of the Rev. Mr. Meade. It was soon ascertained 
that a Clerical member present had not voted, and 
hence that Mr. Meade had not received a majority 
vote of the Clergy, and so, after much discussion, the 
whole election was postponed to the next stated 
meeting of the Convention. That next Convention, 
the Forty-third, met in Harrisburg, in 1827. It was, 
of course, a time of much excitement. The vote of 
the last Convention showed how evenly balanced 
opinion was, and each side therefore taxed its energies 
to ensure success. 

The result was the choice (by a majority of one of 
the Clergy), of the Rev. H. U. Onderdonk, D.D., then 
Rector of St. Ann's, Brooklyn, who was consecrated 
in Christ Church, in this city, on the 25th of October, 
by Bishop White. As I read over the records of 
that period of strife and bitterness, I mourn the 
absence of the spirit of love and confidence and con- 
ciliation which ought to have prevailed. The almost 
equipoise of party numbers intensified the conflict ; 
and led to measures and statements on each side, alike 
discreditable to both parties. 



THE BUILDINC4 OF A DIOCESE. 21 

The Fiftieth Convention was held in St. Andrew's 
Church, Philadelphia, on the 20th May, 1834. It is 
a pleasing coincidence, that the only two Clergymen, 
who, with Bishops White, H. U. Onderdonk and G. 
W. Doane, took part in the Morning Prayer on that 
occasion, are still living, and have taken part in the 
Morning Prayer of this day, viz., the Rev. John B. 
Clenison, D.D., now residing in West Chester, and 
the Rev. George Emlen Hare, D.D., LL.D., still 
actively at his professorial work, honored and re- 
vered as a profound scholar, a well-read canonist, 
a wise legislator, and a Christian gentleman of the 
highest type and dignity. 

The special feature of this Convention, was the de- 
livery by Bishop White of his last charge, entitled, 
" The Past and the Future." It was a retrospect of 
events connected with the organization of our Church, 
and an anxious outlook into the future, coupled with 
such wise counsels as age and learning and an excep- 
tional experience could suggest. It was a fitting time 
for such an address, and he was the only man then 
living, who could so well tell the story of the past, 
and teach the lessons which they inculcate on the 
future. The opening sentence of this charge states a 
marvelous fact. "This," he says, "is the Fiftieth 
Animal Convention in which your Bishop has been 
present and presiding in the representative body of 
this Diocese." Think for a moment what is involved 
in this simple statement ! ISTot merely, that the Con- 



22 THE BUILDIXG OF A DIOCESE. 

mention had been in existence a half-hundred years, — 
not merely that the Bishop had been Bishop nearly 
fifty years — but that he had been present at, and had 
presided over, each one of the fifty Conventions. 
Never was he absent, never had another occupied his 
presidential chair ! This is a most remarkable fact, 
and can find its parallel nowhere in our history, nor 
is it likely to find its counterpart in the future. 

Bishop White also says, " It will probably be new 
to the greater number present, to be informed, , that 
for a short time he who addresses you was the only 
Episcopal Clergyman in the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania, and that when he was elected to the 
Episcopate there were only three of his brethren 
present and voting. They were all who could have 
given clerical voices in the measure, with the excep- 
tion of two brethren who were absent and resided at 
distances, but afterwards signified their concurrence." 

Imagine this Venerable Bishop standing before 
that Convention and speaking such words. See him 
with his tall, and once erect, but now slightly bowed 
form, with white flowing hair, with sharp cut and 
expressive face, with earnest, yet tremulous voice, 
bearing the burden of eighty-and-four years, and 
delivering to that Assembly those strong and sound 
and wholesome words of narrative and counsel and 
fatherly care. One who, in his own person, seemed 
to gather up all the experience of the past half 
century, and was now handing it down to the gen- 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 23 

erations to come for future guidance and study. It 
is decidedly the most important and well-digested of 
all his charges. It was to the Church, the greatest 
state paper that had been produced by the bench of 
Bishops. Read to-day, fifty years after it was 
delivered, it is wonderful to find how well it suits our 
own times, and how clearly it prescribes for conditions 
which exist all around us. It required almost a proph- 
et's ken to see these things afar ofi*. It required a 
watchman's faithful eye to detect possible danger 
in the future, and forefend its dreaded end. 

Let me mention in this connection but one instance 
of his foresight, but it is a striking one, and which we 
shall all recognize and appreciate in connection with 
the proceedings of our late General Convention in 
this city. Bishop White is speaking of the possible 
and even needed revision of our lituro^v, and ha vino- 
stated that " there will unquestionably be manifested 
discordant opinions concerning different particulars 
of proposed change, according to diversities of judg- 
ment, and even of taste," and having further stated 
that '^ the only security against consequent discord, 
and its attendant ills, must be the spirit of mutual 
concession in all points not interfering with the lead- 
ing attributes of the Church manifested in the gen- 
eral mass of her devotion," he goes on to say, how, 
in his opinion, such a revision should be made. ''Let 
a Committee of Bishops be chosen by the House of 
Bishops, and another of Presbyters, by the House of 



24 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

Clerical and Lay Deputies. Let this combined com- 
mittee assemble at some place convenient for the 
consultation of books. Let them maturely, and not 
without continued prayer, devote themselves to the 
work. And when it is prepared let there be a call of 
the General Convention, the revised liturgy to be 
received or rejected by them without debate." Fifty 
years after these words were written what was done ? 
A Committee of seven Bishops chosen by the House 
of Bishops, and a Committee of seven Presbyters 
and seven Laymen of the House of Clerical and Lay 
Deputies, had maturely, and with learned books 
around them, often met and consulted together with 
prayer, had prepared a revised liturgy, had presented 
it to the General Convention to be accepted by that 
body, not, indeed, without debate, as Bishop White 
suggested, but with close, learned and profound 
debate, and had then been adopted by that body 
with a unanimity absolutely overwhelming. Had he 
been present at our last General Convention he 
would have approved of its action, for the Revised 
Liturgy then presented, had been prepared, not only 
with all the safe-guards which he prescribed, but with 
two additional ones of the strongest and most con- 
servative kind, viz. : The co-operation of the Laity in 
the committee, and the open discussion of the addi- 
tions and alterations by each House, and by each 
Order, composing the General Convention. 

Bishop H. U. Onderdonk, in his address as Assist- 



THE BUILDINTG OF A DIOCESE. 25 

ant Bishop, in that Fiftieth Convention of which we 
have been speaking, having stated that Bishop White 
was " the centre of onr affections and of those of onr 
whole Church," goes on to say : " For nearly half a 
century he has been the living link between two 
Churches, the Church of England and the American 
Episcopal Church. For nearly three-quarters of a 
century he has been the living link between the suc- 
cessive generations of men in active life, who, at the 
beginning of that period, were prominent in the afPairs 
of our Church, or have since become such. All our 
Bishops but one, since the succession was obtained, 
and all our present Bishops received their commissions 
at his hands. "^ * * He was the friend and pastor 
of Washington and a Chaplain to Congress at an 
early period. Once he was the only Clergyman in 
Pennsylvania ; now about seventy acknowledge him 
as their Diocesan. Strangers ask to see him, and 
young children are brought into his presence, that 
they may be able to say, at future periods, that they 
have been taken by the hand by Bishop White." 

Two years more Bishop White presided in the 
Annual Diocesan Conventions, delivering in each his 
usual brief address. In less than two months after 
the last Convention, in 1836, he was dead. On 
Sunday morning, July 17th, while the various con- 
gregations of his Diocese had assembled to worship 
God, the venerable Bishop serenely passed away from 
earth to the rest of the blessed. 



26 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

On the moi'iiing of Wednesday, the 20th July, the 
orphaned Diocese gathered around his bier, as his 
remains, followed by representatives of all classes of 
people, and sincerely mourned by all, were laid in the 
family vault, in Christ Church. His ashes now lie 
under the chancel of this Church, in which he had 
ministered over sixty years, and the Church itself, 
which so gracefully towers over him, is at once the 
guardian of his dust, the memorial of his ministry, 
and the historic shrine to which long succeeding gen- 
erations of Churchmen will come, to stand by the 
tomb of the Bishop, who did more than any other 
man to lay the foundations, rear the superstructure, 
and mould the future, of our Branch of the Holy 
Catholic Church. 

The administi'ation of the Diocese now devolved 
upon his Assistant, Bishop Henry U. Onderdonk, 
who presided over its affairs until his resignation, in 
1844. 

Bishop H. IT. Onderdonk was a man of much intel- 
lectual ability, and theological learning ; but he came 
into the Diocese in a time of great party excitement, 
and his unfortunate habits, induced at first by the 
use of remedies for threatened illness, soon beclouded 
his name and weakened his influence, and resulted in 
his resignation of his Episcopate and his suspension 
from office. His subsequent life was one of true re- 
pentance, sincere humility, and godly living. He 
won back much of the estranged feeling of his 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 27 

Diocese by his submissive spirit, and before he died 
the House of Bishops restored him to his office, though 
not, of course, to his jurisdiction. The cloud that 
darkened the afternoon of his Ufe, Hfted before sun- 
set, and at "evening time," it was "Hght" with 
peace and hope. 

In 1845 Alonzo Potter was elected Bishop of the 
Diocese and consecrated in this Church, in Septem- 
ber, 1845, and the only one of his Consecrators in 
active service, Bishop Lee, is present w^ith us to-day. 

The coming of Bishop Potter to this then afflicted 
Diocese, was the starting point of its new Ufe and 
enlarged work. He came to it in the ripeness of his 
mental and moral powers, and in the fullness of a 
zeal that seemed to know no weariness or decline. 
His mind was fertile in educational, philanthropic 
and missionary plans ; and to him is the Diocese 
indebted for its Theological Seminary, its Episcopal 
Hospital, and many other philanthropic and Church 
expansion agencies, which, under his nurture, made 
it take a foremost stand among the Dioceses of our 
land. 

His twenty years' Episcopate was one long blessing 
to Pennsylvania. As the standard bearer of our 
Church he ever stood forth as one commanding the 
respect and confidence of all classes in the commu- 
nity ; and hence he led the Church forward to higher 
vantage ground and greater influence than it ever 
had before. Indeed, in all aspects of his character, as 



28 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

a Bishop, as an educator, as a philosopher, as a 
philanthropist, as a legislator, as a Christian gen- 
tleman he was one of the grand productions of our 
Church, our age, our land. Most truly do I repeat 
what I wrote concerning him nearly nineteen years 
ago, sentiments which my own prolonged experience 
as his successor duly confirms, ''that though the 
earthly life of Bishop Potter is ended, he still lives. 
He lives in the Clergy, whom his mind has moulded ; 
lives in the institutions which he founded ; lives in 
the books which he published ; lives in the philan- 
thropies which he nurtured ; lives in the legislation 
of the Church which he helped to fashion ; lives in the 
Diocese he so long and wisely governed. By this 
posthumous, yet most potential life, he being dead, 
will speak to far-off generations," and so we can apply 
to him the beautiful words of Longfellow : 

" Were a star quenched on liigh, 
For a^es would its light, 
Still traveling downward from the sky, 
Shine on our mortal sight. 

So, when a great man dies, 

For years beyond our ken, 
The light he leaves behind him lies 

Upon the paths of men." 

Had the past century of our Diocese produced no 
other products to mark its claim to our notice, the pre- 
siding over it of two such Bishops as William White 
and Alonzo Potter would stamp it with the image 
and superscription of true and lasting greatness. 



THE BUILDINa OF A DIOCESE. 29 

The Episcopate of Bishop Bowman, who was 
chosen in 1858 to be the Assistant to Bishoj) Potter, 
was a beautiful Episcopal episode in the history of 
the Diocese. He was elected in sound health, to 
help the feeble Bishop ; but the feeble Bishop out- 
lived the strong Assistant. His spotless ministerial 
life, his high tone of ministerial honor, his happy 
adaptation of himself to all the phases of Diocesan 
life, and his unwearied assiduity in his work, won foi* 
Bishop Bowman the sincere regard of all classes, in 
all parts of the State. His wayside death, in August, 
1861, falling dead while on an Episcopal visitation, 
sent a quiver of sorrow throughout the Diocese which 
had learned so soon to venerate and love him. Though 
he died while an Assistant Bishop, yet he was grieved 
for as one worthy of his high office, which he had 
borne unsullied through his brief Episcopate, and the 
summons of His Lord, " Come up higher," found him 
wdth his lamp burning, with his loins girded, watch- 
ing and waiting, and so ''he was not, for God 
took him." 

As we look back over the one hundred years of our 
Diocesan life, it is interesting to note how many 
personages of historic fame in Church and State have 
taken part in our Conventions, or have been in some 
way connected with this Diocese. 'No less than 
twenty-eight Bishops have had parochial charge here. 
Twenty-six Bishops were consecrated by Bishop 
White, a large number of them in Christ Church in 



80 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

this city. Here was ordained the first colored Clergy- 
man of our Church in this country, the Rev. Absalom 
Jones. Here ministered, for a time, the Rev. Dr. S. 
H. Turner, the gentle and learned first Professor of 
Biblical learning in the General Theological Seminary, 
and the Rev. Bird "Wilson, D.D., LL.D., once a civil 
judge, then the admirable professor in this same 
Seminary, and the biographer of Bishop White. Here 
was ordained and officiated the Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg, 
who has left such indelible marks of his St. John-like 
nature, and his cultured Church tastes, upon our 
Church life and institutions. Here were introduced 
into the Ministry, by being ordained Deacons by 
Bishop White, Bishops Kemp, Croes, Hobart, Kem- 
per, Johns, Mcllvaine, Bowman, Hopkins, 

Here, too, among the prominent lay members of our 
several Diocesan Conventions, we find the names of 
James Reed, Richard Willing, Andrew Doz, Francis 
Hopkinson, William Bingham, Richard Peters, Gen- 
eral Gurney, Horace Binney, Richard Dale, Wm. M. 
Meredith, Joseph R. Ingersoll, John IN . Conyngham, 
Dr. J. Kearsley Mitchell, Henry Reed, with many 
other men, notable in Revolutionary history, or at the 
bar, in literature, and in medicine; men who have 
been wise in council, prudent in action, and towers of 
strength in our Ecclesiastical Conventions. 

One point more must at least be alluded to before 
we pass from the history of the building of this Dio- 
cese. In 1865 the Diocese of Pennsylvania was 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 31 

divided by setting off the counties in the State west 
of the Allegheny mountains, into the new Diocese of 
Pittsburgh. The new Diocese elected as its first 
Bishop John Barrett Kerfoot, a man of great learn- 
ing and ability, of sound Churchmanship and Theol- 
ogy. His death, after fifteen years of unwearied 
devotion, not merely to his Diocese, but to all the 
great interests of the general Church, was a loss to 
our w^hole Communion. His place has been filled by 
one, whose life and works thus far, give assurance of 
success in all that constitutes the real greatness of 
the Episcopate. 

In 1871, the then diminished Diocese of Pennsyl- 
vania again divided, and the Convention set off all its 
remaining counties but five, as the new Diocese of 
Central Pennsylvania. 

Over this new Diocese the Kev. Dr. M. A. De Wolfe 
Howe, the well-known and well-beloved Pector of St. 
Luke's, in this city, was chosen Bishop, and was con- 
secrated to that office in December, 1871. The 
Diocese has greatly increased under his oversight, 
and already efforts are being made to divide it into 
"two bands," and so, the old Mother Diocese, as she 
gathers at her side to-day her two Diocesan children, 
points to them with a true maternal pride, and says 
with more than Cornelia-like rejoicing, "These are 
my jewels." 

The present Diocese of Pennsylvania consists of 
the five counties of Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, 



32 THE BUILDINa OF A DIOCESE. 

Montgomery and Bucks ; yet though thus restricted 
in territory, it is larger in all its potentialities and 
agencies, than it was when it first set off the western 
Diocese, in 1865, and stands to-day in number of 
Clergy and Churches, and communicants and con- 
tributions, and Sunday Schools and auxiliary insti- 
tutions of benevolence, and education, the second 
Diocese in the United States. Where once was but 
a solitary Presbyter in this whole State, there are now 
three organized Dioceses, with their three Bishops, 
their 350 Clergymen, their 340 parishes and missions, 
and 50,000 communicants. So mightily has grown 
the word of the Lord, and prevailed! 

II. We are now briefly to consider the influence of 
certain great principles which took their rise with 
Bishop White, or were first set forth in our early 
Conventions, which have since modified the whole 
aspect of ecclesiastical law and legislation, throughout 
the world. 

To the honor of this Diocese be it said, in the lan- 
guage of Judge HofiiTian, that " the first influential 
step which was taken for the Union of the Churches 
of the States, of which we have any record, was at 
the meeting of the various members of the Churches 
of Philadelphia, held in May, 1784." 

Dr. Hawks says the same thing. 

Bishop White, in his Memoirs of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, gives an account of a meeting at 
his house on the 29th March, 1784, when, as he says, 



THE BUILDI>s"a OF A DIOCESK. 33 

"The first advances towards a ofeneral orofanization" 
were made. 

Unless one has a clear understanding of the true 
condition of our Church in this country prior to, and 
during, the Revolutionary War, he is not able to judge 
of the importance on the one hand, and the difficulty 
on the other, of securing a general organization, such 
as was here attempted. 

The peculiarity of our condition was this : Prior 
to the Revolution, and until we were severed from the 
Mother Country by the Declaration of Independence, 
our Church here was, in various ways, allied with the 
State and Church of England. 

All the Clergy here were ordained in England, and 
had to take the oath of Supremacy to the Crown, and 
of Canonical obedience to an English Bishop. The 
Prayer Book in use here was made binding on the 
Church by an Act of Parliament, and it had in it 
prayers for the King and Royal Family, and the 
High Court of Parliament ; and this Prayer Book 
was unalterable save by an Act of Parliament. The 
Bishop having ecclesiastical jurisdiction here was the 
Lord Bishop of London, who governed this American 
annex to the See of London by several Commissaries 
with limited powers. 

A Church which thus, in its most solemn liturgy, 
prayed for the King and the High Court of Parliament ; 
whose Ministers all bore their Commissions from the 
Lord Bishop of Loudon ; and who were bound by 

8 



34: THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

oath to uphold the King's Supremacy ; whose Mission- 
aries were nearly all supported by funds given by the 
"" Society for Propagating the Gospel," the oldest mis- 
sionary organization of the Church of England ; such 
a Church could not but be an object of distrust and 
hatred to the hot-headed patriots of that day. Though 
eighteen signers of the Declaration of Independence 
were Episcopalians ; though the large part of the First 
General Convention of our Church, in 1785, consisted 
principally, as Bishop White says, of " Gentlemen 
who had been active in the late Revolution," and 
although such true Patriots as George Washington, 
Robert Morris, John Rutledge, Francis Hopkinson, 
John Marshall, James Madison, Richard Henry Lee, 
William Moultrie, Robert L. Livingstone, John Jay, 
James Duane, and many others equally prominent, 
were adherents of the Church ; yet, as a Church, it 
was rudely set upon and broken down. Its glebes 
were confiscated, its Clergy were ejected from their 
Parishes, its pulpits were silenced, its buildings were 
despoiled, its congregations were dispersed, and "all 
her hedges were broken down, so that all they who 
passed by did pluck her." 

'No other body of Christians was thus treated, or 
had been subjected to the same difficulties and trials, 
because no other had such entangling alliances to 
break off, or such conscientious scruples to overcome. 
To gathei- up the fragments of such a dislocated 
Church, to reunite them in one body, to rouse them 



THE BUILDI^^U OF A DIOCESE. 35 

from the apathy of despair, and inspire them with 
hope, was a task, the greatness of which we cannot 
imagine, and demanded abilities of the very highest 
kind. 

" The principles" just before adopted by the Clergy 
and Laity in Philadelphia, were made known by Bishop 
White to the meeting of the Clergy in IS^ew Bruns- 
wick, from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, 
a few days later, in May, 1784, called for the purpose 
of revising the Corporation for the Relief of the 
Widows and Children of the Clergy. That body, 
however, had neither representative nor legislative 
power, and took no definite action except so far as 
to agree to secure as general a meeting as might be 
of the representatives of the Clergy and of the Laity 
of the different States in the City of New York, on 
the 6th of October, 1784. 

These efforts resulted in a larger meeting, in which 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia were 
represented. This gathering, however, was a volun- 
tary one, ^'because, says Professor White, there were 
no authorities from the Churches in the several States, 
even in the appointment of the members which were 
made from the congregations to which they respect- 
ively belonged," and so the acts of this body were in 
" the form of a recommendation and proposal." Public 
opinion was then gradually shaping itself in reference 
to the question of Ecclesiastical Union, which took 



36 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

definite form the following year, when the First 
General Convention of our Church, consisting of 
Clerical and Lay Deputies from seven of the thirteen 
States, assembled in Christ Church, in this City, on 
the 27th of September, 1785. 

Thus the work of organizing the scattered congre- 
gations in each State into Dioceses, and of organizing 
a Union of these Dioceses by their accredited repre- 
rentatives into one General Convention, and thus 
giving corporate unity to our Church in this country, 
started by a few leading minds in this State, w^as 
accomplished, and has continued in existence to the 
present day. 

We give well-merited praise to those statesmen who 
framed our National Constitution, and so wisely ad- 
justed the interlacing functions and j)owers of the dif- 
ferent States, and the several departments of govern- 
ment, that they have kept in w^ell-balanced and effec- 
tive action to the present day. But while w^e praise 
these marvels of political statesmanship, let us not 
overlook the masterly ecclesiastical statesmanship, if 
I may use that word, concerning the Church, showai 
by our early legislators in our Diocesan Councils, who 
framed a constitution and laid down far-reaching prin- 
ciples, w^hich have borne the test and strain of one 
hundred years ; and which, like our civil Constitution, 
has been a model for others to copy in different por- 
tions of the globe. 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 37 

Well might the Poet Wordsworth say of the build- 
ers of our ecclesiastical system, that 

"Patriots informed with Apostolic light 
Were they, who, when their country had been freed, 
Bowing with reverence to the ancient creed ; 
Fixed on the frame of England's Church their sight ; 
And strove in filial love to re-unite 
What force had severed. Hence they fetched the seed 
Of Christian unity, and won a meed 
Of praise from heaven." 

And then recognizing his invaluable services, the 
poet thus apostrophizes Bishop White : 

To thee, O saintly White, 
Patriarch of a wide-spreading famih', 
Remotest lands and unborn times shall turn, 
Whether they would restore, or build, — To thee, 
As one who rightly taught how zeal should burn, 
As one who drew from out Faith's holiest urn 
The purest stream of patient energy." 

Thus lovingly, truthfully and almost prophetically, 
has one of England's greatest poets embalmed, in the 
amber of his imperishable sonnets, the name and the 
deeds of the first Bishop of our Diocese, and the first 
American Bishop of English consecration. 

Another pomt which reflects honor on our Diocese 
is, that here w ere enunciated and put into practice the 
important principle of Lay representation in the legis- 
lative Councils of the Church. The idea of introdu- 
cing laymen into the Conncils of the Church was first 
publicly broached by Bishop White, in a pamphlet 
published by him in August, 1782, the very month 
that General Carleton opened negotiations for peace 



38 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

with General Washington, entitled " The case of 
the Episcopal Churches considered." In this hro- 
chure, which Bishop White explains and defends in. 
his Memoirs, he advocated the principle, that the Laity, 
as well as the Clergy, should have a share in the gov- 
ernment of the Church. This idea was carried into 
practical effect in the first Convention of our Church 
in this State, it being, as the venerable Bishop states, 
" the first ecclesiastical assembly in any of the States 
consisting partly of Lay members." He goes on to say, 
" As the author was considered at the time to be the 
proposer of the measure, the principle of it having been 
advocated about a year before in a pamphlet known 
to be his, he thinks it proper to give in this place a 
short statement of his reasons in its favor." 

These reasons, which we need not recite here, are 
clear and strong, and are such as have stood the test 
of age and usage. 

It is evident, from the statement in the Acts of the 
Apostles, that the first Council at Jerusalem was an 
assembly of Apostles, Elders and Brethren ; that the 
Laity chose the first seven Deacons, at the Apostles' 
request ; that the Laity were permitted to preach the 
Word ; and that, in the language of the present Bishop 
of Salisbury, " l^o person who reads the Epistles of 
Cyprian can be ignorant how constantly he recognizes 
the share of the ' plebs Christiana' in the essential 
powers of the body of the Church." 

Up to the time of the Councils of Hertford and Hat- 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 39 

field, under Arelibisliop Theodore, 673, 680, however, 
the Anglo-Saxon Church had recognized and utiHzed 
the Lay element. After this period the Laity had no 
part in the management of ecclesiastical affairs, except 
such as belonged to Parliament, and were part and 
parcel of the statute law of the realm. 

For many hundred years they had l)eeu debarred 
the choice of their Rectors ; a participation in the elec- 
tion of Bishops ; and a voice in Convocation, in the 
making of rubrics and Canons. 

The restoration of the Laitv, therefore, to their 
Scrij)tural rights, as a co-ordinate power with the 
Clergy in the Church ; in the choice of their spiritual 
pastors ; in the framing of Canons, and in the general 
Councils, Avas a long step in advance, and marks an 
epoch in Church legislation in modern times. It should 
be remembered that there Avas, at that time, much 
opposition to the introduction of the Lay element. It 
was, as Dr. Hawks says, " one of the dividing points 
in the organization of the Church." Xearly all the 
]^ew England States questioned its propriety. Con- 
necticut had, in a meeting composed of the Clergy 
only, elected a Bishop, and that Bishop, Dr. Seabury, 
was quite opposed to giving laymen a voice in Church 
affairs. The correspondence of that day between lead- 
ing Clergy and Laity, shows how diverse opinion was 
on this point, and how fearful many thoughtful per- 
sons were, as to the effect of allowing the Laity a voice 
in our legislation, and in the choice of a Bishop. 



40 THE buildi:n^g of a diocese. 

Bishop White took a strong and decided ground ; 
and it was his dehberate opinion, uttered late in Ufe, 
that, " had the Laity been excluded, no Church Con- 
stitution could have been formed." 

This principle has been adopted by the now dis- 
established Church of Ireland ; it lacked but one vote 
of being accepted in the Episcopal Church of Scot- 
land ; it has been embodied in the Canadian Church ; 
and has been engrafted in the Synodal Constitution 
and Canons of the Australian and other Colonial 
Churches. 

It is a principle which " the Committee on the Rela- 
tions of Church and State " in both Houses of Convoca- 
tion, Canterbury and York, have formally and thor- 
oughly endorsed, with certain limitations. It is a prin- 
ciple which has already asserted itself in new and strik- 
ing forms, such as the " Parochial Councils," " Ruri- 
decanal " and " Diocesan Conferences ; ■ ' and in the 
influential, and almost national " Church Congresses " 
which amuially assemble in England. Indeed, efforts 
are now being made, to have representative jN^ational 
Conferences of Clergy and Laity in England, not to 
actually supercede the two Convocations of Canter- 
bury and York, but to make them more distmctively 
represent, not the Clergy and the Cathedral Chapters 
only, but all classes of the Church, in all parts of the 
realm. Little did Bishop White imagine what he was 
setting in motion, when he first wTote out his thoughts 
on this subject, and committed them to the press. 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 41 

This seed-thought, first planted here, is now one of 
the most fruitful thoughts of the age, and is working 
out wise and important results in all parts of the 
Avorld. 

This one principle has done much to redeem the 
Church from the dominion of sacerdotalism to which 
it must necessarily tend, when the authoritative voice 
of the Laity in its Councils is luiheard. It has done 
more towards re-establishing the Laity, in what I 
regard their divine and inalienable rights in the 
Church of God, than has been hertofore effected by 
all the decrees of Synods or Councils. 

It has done more to root the Church in the hearts of 
the lay people, by placing upon them grave responsi- 
bilities, and relying largely upon their wise action and 
soliciting their participation, not merely in making 
Canons and taking part in its deliberative assemblies ; 
but in creating, changing and establishing forms of 
worship and articles of belief in accordance Avith 
God's Word written. 

Indeed, brethren, it would be difficult to state the 
expansiveness of that one act of admitting the Laity 
into the Councils of the Church, and the wholesome 
results to all classes, which have been everywhere seen 
where that principle has been adopted. 

]S^or, in my judgment, will it be long before it will 
be adopted in the venerable Mother Church of Eng- 
land. Upon this subject one of the Committees of 
the Convocation of Canterbury says : " The hearty 



42 THE BUILDIN^G OF A DIOCESE. 

loyal Churehmansbip of English laymen is one of 
the most encouraging signs of the revival of Church 
life. He not only claims a right to be heard, but 
shows that he is Avell qualified to be listened to. He 
cannot regard Parliament as representing the Laity 
of the Church either in theory or practice, he cannot 
be any longer satisfied with the Crown as their repre- 
sentative. Some adequate means must be devised for 
giving authoritative expression to the voice of the 
Church Laity." 

, Mr. Gladstone, speaking of the Church of England, 
says, the " ill-defined portion of the Laity is our main 
source of weakness and of danger, the master evil which 
I fondly long to see mitigated or removed." From 
this "Avealaiess and danger," from this "master evil" 
we have been delivered, by the wise statesmanship of 
Bishop White and his colleagues in this State, acting, 
as we believe they did, under the guidance of the Holy 
Ghost. 

That to this introduction of the Laitv into, the 
Church Councils is largely due the strength and 
extension of our Church, is known not only to all who 
have studied our own history, but the distinguished 
Professor of Modern Historv, in the Universitv of 
Oxford (Montague Burrows), in a thoughtful aiid 
careful paper on the place of the Laity in Church 
government, writes, concerning our action, that " the 
result (of introducing the Lay element) has been that 
no one can denv that the American Church exhibits 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCKSE. 43 

at present a very efficient, if not perfect example of 
organization; that, considering its difficulties, its 
success, taken in the largest sense of tlie word, has 
surpassed all human expectations, and that the pai*t 
taken by the Laity in the work has had a niahi share 
in this result." 

To Bishop "White also is, I believe, due the honor 
of being the first, in these latter days, to give definite 
and public expression to the idea of giving the elec- 
tion of its Bishops into the hands of the Clergy and 
Lait}^ of the Diocese. 

This thought he distinctly brought out in the be- 
ginning of August, 1782, in the following words : 
" The power of electing a superior order of Ministers 
ought to be in the Clergy and Laity together, they 
being both interested in the choice." It w^as after- 
w^ards engrafted into the fundamental principles on 
wdiich our Church was reorganized after the War of 
the Revolution, and has been in full working force 
ever since. It restores to the Laity a primiti^'e, but 
long-desired right, and gives the sanction, not of one 
order of the Clergy, but of the Laity also, to the choice 
of him who is to be made a Bishop in the Church of 
God. This, as you well know, is a usage unknown in 
the Latin Church, the Greek Church, or the Angli- 
can Church in the Mother Country, nor did the Laity 
have any voice in the choice of the first Bishop of Con- 
necticut, either at his election, or in confirming his 
election. 



44 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

]N^ot only does the Lay element of the Diocese have 
equal influence by vote with the Clergy in the choice 
of its own Bishop, but the same power of the Laity 
is exercised in the case of each election by or for any 
Diocese throughout the land. For the failure to ob- 
tain Lay acquiescence in the Standing Committee of 
the Diocese, or the failure of the Lay order in the 
House of Deputies to confirm a Diocesan choice, or, as 
in the case of Missionary Bishops, an Episcopal choice, 
may defeat any election to the Episcopate. 

The practical value of this action is, that the whole 
Church in these United States is considered as a unit ; 
that the Bishop elected is consecrated, not as Bishop 
of the Diocese of A or B, but a Bishop " in the Church 
of God ; " that the members of each Diocese are thus 
recognized as members of the whole body ecclesiastic, 
and so members one of another, having not only a 
common body, but a common head, a common end 
and aim ; and thus the Laymen of the Diocese of Maine 
virtually take part in the choice of a Bishop of Cali- 
fornia, and the Lay Deputies of the Diocese of Dela- 
ware (little as it is among the thousands of Judah), 
have a personal and corporate interest in the choice of 
a Bishop of 'New York. 

These are some of the things which so knit the Laity 
to the Church, and which so unite the Church together 
into solidity and power ; so that all the body " by joints 
and bands having nourishment and ministered and knit 
together," " increaseth with the increase of God." 



THE HUILDIXCJ OF A DIOCESE. 45 

The i)ractical wo.rkhio' of oivhio- tlic Laitv a vote in 
the choice of all Bishops has been most beneficial, and 
a hundred years' experience has proved that it is the 
Avise and impartial way to secure a careful selection of 
men for that eminent position, which, because of its 
eminence, requires the greatest caution and discrimi- 
nation in the choice of its occupant. This principle 
also is destined to work its way into the ascendant. 

In many of the Colonial Churches it has already 
found a place. It is acted upon in the Church of Ire- 
land, and is so thoroug-hlv in accordance with the ele- 
vating spirit of Christianity and the practice of the 
early Church, that it cannot be long before the Laity 
of the Church of England shall have their share in 
the election of Bishoj^s, not as now, by the nomina- 
tion of the Prime Minister, and bv the " Cono-e d'elire" 
of the Imperial Sovereign addressed to a Cathedral 
Chapter, but by the direct and concurring sufh-ages 
of the Clero'v and Laitv in Diocesan Synod or Provin- 
cial Convocations. 

Brethren of the Clergy and Laity, many and in- 
structive are the lessons which this brief sketch of the 
buildinof of our Diocese teaches. It shows us the 
w^onderful vitality of the Church, even when it ap- 
peared to be in extremis. It displays the special super- 
intendence of Almio-htv God in its behalf It tells 
us what can be accomplished by a fe^v men acting 
with wisdom and faith and patient energy. It re- 



46 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 

veals the marvelous adjustability of the Church to all 
the conditions to which it may be subjected. 

It brings out the truth, that the Church needs no 
State support or political affiliation to bolster it up. 

It emphasizes the important fact, that the expansive 
or Mission spirit is the true law of Church life and 
growth. It illustrates the conserving power of the 
Liturgy, as to securing purity of doctrine and worship 
amidst conflicting opinions, and it assures us that the 
Lay element is a divinely recognized agency in the 
government and legislation of the Church of Christ ; 
and the consequent need, therefore, of enlightenment 
and grace on the part of the Laity, that they may be 
wise to discern the times, and strong to build the walls 
and gates of Zion. 

Time forbids any enlargement on these interesting 
points. Already I fear I have taxed your patience too 
long, and yet how little can be said in an hour, of 
what it has taken a century to do ! And that, too, in 
this nineteenth century ! For not only in our own 
Diocese — ^in our own Church — ^in our own country, 
has this been the most marked century of the past ; 
but abroad, in the political world, among men of let- 
ters, in geographical research ; in the wonderful tri- 
umphs of science ; in the development of the great 
industrial arts and agencies ; in the discoveries in as- 
tronomy ; in the opening up of the world of nature in 
its secret treasures ; this century has outstripped all 
others in the practical benefits which it has conferred 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 47 

on the human race. It is the banner century of all the 
centuries since the advent of Christ, and its imperial 
" Labarum," like the battle flags of victory, is written 
all over Avith the noblest triumphs of the human mind ; 
in all that pertains to man's earthly life, and the high- 
est conquest of the Church, in all that pertains to the 
winning back of a revolted world to God. 

Brethren, in thus speaking of the growth of our 
Diocese, let us not flatter ourselves that this is our 
work ; or due alone to the wisdom and zeal of our ec- 
clesiastical forefathers. JSTever forget the word of the 
Lord unto Zerubbabel, "'Not by might, not by power, 
but by My Spirit, saith the Lord." It is all due to the 
presence and power of the Holy Ghost using those 
who went before us, as co-workers with God, in the 
upbuilding of His Church. JSTever forget that it is by 
the Holy Ghost that " the whole body of the Church 
is governed and sanctified." He is its Divine admin- 
istrator and guide. Hence, while He graciously uses 
human agency, and material instrumentalities, we 
must refer all success to Him, "the Lord and Giver of 
Life," " who with the Father and the Son together is 
worshiped and glorified." 

In our devotion to the Church let it not, dear breth- 
ren, be a devotion to a mere corporate organization, 
to outward forms and striking ceremonies, to an eccle- 
siastical body knit together by Canons and rubrics ; 
but see to it, that it is a devotion to Christ Himself. 
Personal loyalty to Christ, as the Great Head of the 



48 THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESP:. 

Church, should mark all our lives and emphasize all 
our preaching. 'No devotion to externals, to rites and 
ceremonies, to the outgrowth and off-shoots of the 
Church, can make up the lack of personal faith hi, and 
personal love for, and personal consecration to, the 
Lord Jesus Christ. He, in all His preciousness and 
fullness, must he first, middle and last, in all our teach- 
ing, in all our working, in all our living ; thus o]ilv can 
w^e prove the true Apostolicity of our ministry, and 
take rank with those "teachers" spoken of in Daniel, . 
who, turning " many to righteousness, shall shine as 
the hrightness of the firmament and as the stars for- 
ever and ever." 

The century of the past of which Ave now take our 
leave, and bid it farewell, has been a century of the 
laying of foundations and of constructions ; work 
which has been w^ell and wisely done, and for which 
we give devout thanks to the Great Head of the 
Church. The advancing century, whose footsteps we 
already hear at the threshold of to-day, comes to us 
in hope, and enters upon its patrimony of years with 
gladsome anticipations. It comes not to lay founda- 
tions, but to build on those already laid. It comes to 
be a century of the lengthening of cords, as well as of 
the strengthening of stakes ; it comes to use the work 
of the past as a momentum for accelerating the 
forces of the future, and so we salute this new 
century with joy, as it enters upon its heritage of a 
noble an influential past. 



THE BUILDING OF A DIOCESE. 49 

Lifting up our eyes to Heaven, our earnest and I 
am sure united prayer is, that our Church in this new 
century, upon which it now enters, may reahze in 
some measure the prophetic splendours of Isaiah's 
Yision ; that it may be " the Zion of the Holy One of 
Israel ; " "a joy, of many generations ; " that its walls 
may be " Salvation," and its gates " Praise ; " that the 
sun of its ]3rosperity " shall go no more down ; " that 
" the Lord shall be unto it an everlasting light ; " that 
" its people may be all righteous," and " inherit the 
land forever ; " " the branch of God's planting, the 
work of His hands that He may be glorified." Thus 
owned and blessed of God, will it find the fulfillment 
of the promise, " A little one shall become a thou- 
sand, and a small one a strong nation : I the Lord will 
hasten it in His time." 



